That's a tough one and I wish I could help you. My experience was with a cat who didn't like the usual options. At least a person understands why the changes are being presented (not that they will like them any better).

Do the books on Amazon give good previews? If you can look at a few recipes and/or the indexes, those along with the reviews should help make some choices. Also, check out support groups for renal failure for some ideas.

I did a Google search and found these (no harm trying a few free resources and then buying what you need to add from there):

https://www.kidney.org/sites/default/files/docs/kidney_cookbook_lr.pdf

https://www.davita.com/recipes/

https://azkidney.org/cookbook

http://www.nwkidney.org/living-with-kidney-disease/recipes/

There are plenty more. When my dad was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and sodium became a serious issue, I tried to do some cooking for him. Using other flavors helped -- onions, peppers, herbs and spices, and don't underestimate things like searing and browning to bring out flavors.

Best of luck to you and your family member.

Funkyart: Sorry to hear about your relative.

If you do a search in the above Houzz box for low salt you will pull up a request for low salt cookbooks. Shampoo has replied with some suggestions and I believe she also has a blog. She is a regular on the cooking forum and has been doing low salt cooking for several years.

My heart goes out to your family member. That is not a fun diagnosis, especially for someone that young! I wish that I could be of more help. 23 years ago when I was pregnant with DD, I went preeclamptic and my kidneys started to fail. I was put on such a diet and I can still remember how tasteless and boring it was for me. As much as I've always loved to cook, I was also put on bedrest and was unable to try and experiment to make things tastier. I went eclamptic and had DD at 28 weeks, just before they were going to put me on dialysis. My kidneys kicked back in soon after, and I'm now able to eat normally again, but I do still recall how absolutely horrid this diet can be. I hope that you can do enough research to find a cookbook with truly good tasting, easy to cook recipes soon. Your young relative will so appreciate it!

Thank you all for your suggestions and kind words. I did find the thread you mentioned Lizbeth and will check it out after work. This is a heartbreaking diagnosis and I am hoping that this is one small way I can help them.

My sympathies for your family member. My son was diagnosed with kidney disease when he was three and we limited salt for many years. He has now, blessedly,been in remission for awhile.

I don't have a book to recommend but fresh herbs and citrus are very big flavor components for my family still.

I am on a restricted salt diet for an ear issue and my best advice is to avoid bread. One slice of sandwich bread has twice as much salt as a serving of chips so a regular sandwhich before the salty lunch meats has as much sodium as a bowl of soup and with the meat it has more than a whole family size bag of salted chips. Many cakes and cookies have more salt than fries due to baking soda and powder being sodium bicarbonate and such.

i use lemon and vinegar in everything from mash potatoes to home made broths to add a zing that I now prefer to salt. I avoid all packaged foods and rarely eat out to keep my salt consumption down. Soon he will actually dislike salty foods. I was amazed after years of loving salted everything how much I find it hinders the taste of food now.

good luck to your young family member I hope he finds a feasible treatment for his tragic condition.

I am so sorry to hear about your family member. I bought these two cookbooks when my dad was diagnosed with CHF. I have made a few of the recipes and they were good. I agree that avoiding processed foods is key.

Localeater, so sorry your son went through this -- but pretty amazing that he is in remission now. I am under the impression that there's no undoing the disease for my nephew but they can get his levels and bp down and stall or stop the progression.

Roarah, it's really crazy how many seemingly "normal" things are just loaded with sodium. I am hoping this is where I can help by making bread, condiments and salad dressings-- and yes, flavor is key.

Thank you texanjana for the specific recommendations. I will check them out. I have also downloaded a few renal cookbooks ... I have been meaning to unsubscribe from kindleunlimited but never do it. Finally, I am getting something out of it! I was able to download two highly rated cookbooks at no extra charge.

Many thanks to you all.. this is going to be a lifelong struggle so it helps to build up a list of resources-- and kind thoughts! <3

Renal diets can be challenging, limiting protein, sodium, and potassium. The good news fats are usually not as restricted. A great resource is a dietician who works in a kidney dialysis center.

Dr. Fuhrman may still be a good resource. He has a member center with different levels of membership. If I recall, one of the levels allows you to communicate with a physician on the message boards. As everything they do is diet based, they could help with ideas on modifications of the basic plan to meet your nephew's needs. Most of the recipes on Dr. Fuhrman's site are relatively easy to prepare. Some to me are not very tasty but others are quite good.

Penzey's has multiple salt-free spice/herb blends that could be a good gift for him, too. There are a tremendous number of low sodium products out there, but the protein limitations I expect are what would make this diet extremely difficult. I wish him luck in navigating this and at such a young age, too.

Yeah, no chance of getting him to go vegetarian or vegan -- though he does enjoy vegetables, he's not going to give up meat completely.

I didn't want to get too personal but part of the issue here is that this young man has a number of developmental disabilities. This is not something he will easily embrace or that he can address for himself. His mom will prepare the evening meals and keep the house stocked but he is on his own for much of the day. He is fairly functional but not independent and not really capable of understanding the impact of diet. He's a creature of habit-- so that will help eventually but it's a hurdle to overcome now. It will be very easy to control his diet at home but much less so when he is out with non-family.

It's just heartbreaking. This kid already has so many challenges in this life. It stinks that he has yet another. He isn't going to understand that, no, he can't just walk to subway for lunch as he's frequently done before.

Again, I so appreciate all your suggestions!